The aim of the study was to utilize thiourea (a scavenger of reactive oxygen species and redox stabilizer) for the identification of miRNAs which are important for the viewpoint of salt tolerance in Brassica juncea. To achieve this, the differential profiling of novel and conserved miRNAs were performed in seedlings given salt with/without thiourea treatment.. Identification of novel and conserved miRNAs responsible for redox mediated regulation of salt tolerance in Brassica juncea

Redox state homeostasis has been recently emerged as “central” or “core” regulator of signaling under different stress as well as developmental stimuli in plants, bacteria and animals. The regulation through redox state is mediated at the level of miRNA, mRNA and proteins. The miRNAs are the class of small nucleotide (21-22 nts) RNA which functions to regulate the level of corresponding mRNA and thereby regulate the protein abundance. In an earlier research, thiourea was successfully established, as a tool, to study redox regulated components of salt and arsenic stress tolerance in different plants. In view of this, the present study was performed to identify thiourea regulated miRNAs from Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) which are responsible for salt stress perception and tolerance.